Dax Dual Speed Hub

The best part about this hub is that it can auto-sense a 10
or 100 Mbps connection. So, if you’re still using 10 Mbps cards, or have a
mixed environment with 100 Mbps cards, this hub will be useful for you. It’s
available in two models–16 and 24 ports–out of which we got the first one
for review.

The hub has three uplink options to cascade multiple hubs.
These include port number 1 and a separate uplink port on the front panel, and
two special connectors on its rear. You can cascade up to three hubs using these
ports. In addition, it has space where you can add an optional fiber-optic
module, for connecting to a fiber-optic network.

The 16 ports on the hub are divided into two parts of eight
ports each. The LEDs on the hub are accordingly divided into two sets. There’s
a set each to indicate link status, 100 Mbps connect, and partition at each
port, as well as any damaged ports. The hub automatically isolates the bad port
until it’s set right. Interestingly, there are only two LEDs–one for each
set of eight ports–to indicate packet collision. It would have made more sense
to indicate packet collision at port level, or in the form of a level indicator.

There’s also a percentage utilization indicator to indicate
5-55 percent utilization in increments of 10.

Overall, a good choice for a mixed environment consisting of
10 and 100 Mbps nodes.

Anil Chopra and Sanjay Majumdar

at PCQ Labs